


Three Parts of a Whole

by Chewie13



Category: Horizon: Zero Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Daemons, Character Studies I Think, Daemon Feels, Fluff and stuff at some point too, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, LITERALLY, Other Characters have Daemons but I didn't write them in, Probably Angst but with a Happy Ending, i dunno, not much canon divergence, that might change
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-17
Updated: 2020-07-17
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:42:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,985
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25322575
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chewie13/pseuds/Chewie13
Summary: The varied reactions and opinions of the many people Aloy meets in her adventures.Said reactions or opinions tend to lean more towards the living, warbling part of her soul that usually follows close behind.Aloy, at least, doesn't seem to mind.(A Daemon AU of sorts)
Relationships: Aloy & Everyone
Comments: 2
Kudos: 16





	Three Parts of a Whole

**Author's Note:**

> Hey all, I've had this idea buzzing around in my head and in my notes for well over a year and I finally found some motivation to write on it more and post it. It's been fun to think about and explore and I figured that if I enjoyed it then someone else might too. 
> 
> I've done my best to be accurate to the tone of HZD but I'll admit I've been out of touch with the game for a while so you'll have to forgive me. 
> 
> In any case, give this a read and I hope you enjoy!

It was no silent affair when the usually quiet halls of All-Mother all but groaned under a pressure akin to birth. Valves pumping and the ground caught in a violent shake. The ancient cradle was hissing and turning with such a ferocity that the sisters, deep in prayer and contemplation, felt it throughout the structure. This deep throb from far within their Mother’s breast and their first response was fear.

Like children for a parent and a parent for their child, the High Matriarch’s were afeared for their Mother and their people in one startling moment. A strong motivation for finding the cause for the ominous state of awakening, but it was less a where and more a who as robes were pulled away from racing feet towards the place the Nora’s land was so named after.

The very center of their Goddess was sacred to stand in front of, let alone pray at, but as they minded the door and hurried down the ramp into the main chamber, the women found a sight just as baffling as the noises that came before. A mountain’s worth of shaking traded for something large and not-at-all belonging at the glorious heart of their Mother.

Their reactions were understandable, Teersa would later tell herself, for what else were they to do but stare after the improbable sight before them?

Though dimmed by the torchlight, the knowable shimmer of glossy ore that danced with flame found one more to mingle with upon the Nora Goddess’ altar. Tiny tufts of fire surrounded by a halo of metal and beak and wings. Large and present, covered in wire and crackling with energy, was something new. A machine made much like a Stormbird, all edges and deadly promise... and it was surrounding a child.

Hearty cries and tiny hands could be seen grappling at air passed the bird’s wide reach. The seemingly newborn, from what they could see, was trying to find what it instinctively knew was surrounding it, and that made the image ever more frightening than before.

And yet the child didn’t abate, much to the sisters’ mounting stress. Instinct screaming at them to take those swirls of red and run. Run far and fast from the clear cut danger brooding above such a fragile life, but that meant approaching a beast whose apparent cousin easily decimated War Parties in the Nora’s not so distant past. They were mothers and leaders, but their limbs no longer held the thirst or weight for battle.

It took them a moment amidst their frozen confusion to realize that the beak of this hulkish avian was dipping low. Those small arms, awash in light, were now able and willing to reach for this unknown quantity with utter enthusiasm. But when those lungs, loud in existence, traded cries for help for cries of joy, an understanding passed between the Matriarchs.

Bubbly giggles came pouring forth and the metallic beak snuggled in further, filling the room with giddy excitement that only a baby could muster, and the deal was all but sealed.

Teersa could admit that she had fond memories of her own children reaching for what they couldn’t see quite yet but could feel nonetheless. Air catching between fingers until a living beast was under their curious search. 

This thing was not alive though, not that they could see. It was a manufactured creature bathed in buffed steel and whirring with a thrum of energy. 

And it’s very existence as anything but was impossible.

But their Goddess was known for her impossibilities so while old bodies went unmoving, minds racing to rationalize the discovery, the other half of the bird once cast in darkness now shifted forth.

In place of what expectedly was a wide expanse of hardened steel came a burst of bright color instead. Wires and armor, the telltale sound of pumping machine parts, gave way to richly toned feathers in rippling waves, not unlike the sky and its smear of shades at sunset. The sudden and previously unseeable point of convergence along its long back was a jigsaw of sharp edges and plush feather, its crown glistening with shine and pigment. Its eyes, set in the skull of a predator, shown brown and neon blue, and no one dared to breathe as they set sight upon it all.

Of all the souls Teersa had helped birth, of all the moments where one being became two, she had never seen such an occurrence. The very thought of an amalgamation of breathing and pumping parts like the one before her was gruesome at best and a curse at worst for the soul it reflected and shared.

And yet, she challenged herself, the Nora were rightfully respectful to machines. They weren’t alive like people were, or their familiars, but they were intelligent and deadly. To respect them and their might meant living to teach it and learn from it. Meant to live and survive from them.

So while such a fusion of the two was unheard of and quite difficult to grasp given the circumstances, Teersa found that she probably came to grips with it quicker than her fellow sisters. The horror fading into reverence at their Goddess and her profound ability to create such a combination of light and breath and intelligence. 

Three parts of a whole and this soul was the miracle born from it.

Her newfound certainty and admiration had her straightening herself. The time to gawk was over.

Her sisters were and weren’t of a similar mind.

While Teersa saw this gift for what it was, Lansra did not and it was quite obvious by the tremor holding her robes. 

Many aborted steps forward had Lansra no closer to the glowering figure and its charge until finally some semblance of courage was gathered and she attempted an approach. She got all but a footfall into the main hall before time shattered.

Like a whirlwind, the soul with eyes loud and gleaming no matter the color turned sharply towards the entrance. Beak pulled and pointed at the intrusion at its door and upon its other half.

Wailing lungs, a distressing cry for comfort, rose up at the action. Lansra’s attempted approach a callous mix of noise and increasingly false bravery as her robes surged around her haltingly paused figure in a cacophony of excess that did little to calm the situation.

Lansra, for what it was worth, still looked partly ready to continue on, but a wingspan large enough to swallow her rose from the floor to fill the altar space. An effective deference as the display of color and grind of iron cowed the pinched faced woman, her aged form shrinking back, no less noisily, from the unified construct. Her feet unsteady as a prayer to All-Mother left her lips, one that Jezza soon followed, but Teersa gazed on. Silent and measuring.

She was no stranger to the Goddess and her gifts and she was not one to shy these gifts when the arose. Embracing them was of her mind and despite this one being not of food or fort, family or peace, this gift was nothing short of a miracle all its own. 

Miracles did not have to look or act the part, after all. 

A gentle man upon a lonely mountain, deeds sowed and unsung, often came to mind.

This baby and its daemon, however, we’re unfamiliar yet inspiring and was all but borne from the womb of the Goddess herself. A glorious child filled with purpose and blessing that was reflected in its familiar in every way. 

To Teersa, the radiant being accompanying the child, with its tendency for tenderness and ferocity already shown, was simply another sign of the wonders their Goddess could create. An enkindled creature of great breadth and grace that no doubt mirrored the life swaddled below it.

They seemed a perfect match. New yet so full of life, and no one would convince the Matriarch otherwise.

She grasped on tight to these certainties, assured but not foolhardy like her sister, and decided to begin her own approach. With kindness as her guide and experience as her protector, she put one padded foot into the hall, and then another.

A steady, quiet pace and the raptorous form shimmered in response. Unexpected and mesmerizing as she watched, they all watched, the coalescing of what remained of its living half to a sheen of black so polished that Teersa could see her reflection in it, even from across their holy hall. The shimmer of torchlight and murkiness upon its wingspan mingling with her equally murky figure was eerie in its own way.

The familiar was ready for battle, it seemed. A pointed attention holding her but she braved another step, deliberate in her slowness. The grate of machine parts through a sharp beak passed through her body. An unsettling feeling that didn’t stop until the low, pitted caw was but an echo racing down the hall.

Still, despite the warning it clearly held, Teersa knew she would do no harm and thought as much as she continued on. Her determination to approach unfettered as no attempt of attack came, and soon the pitched warnings tapered off as she closed the distance.

And then she was next to it. 

Simple and almost too easy.

Small was she beside the large body and smaller still was the child. It’s size now given perspective but its beauty amidst the dancing firelight was still a scene to behold. Different when she was standing so close. The sight of her own form staring back was clear but dampened.

Until it wasn’t. 

The stark blackness was all but swallowed by the crisp rise of an all but shining surface and Teersa fought the reflex to step back. Her reflection as clear as if she were seeing through the gleaming glass often found in metal ruins. Her every wrinkle and crease were captured on the pristine surface now encompassing its entire expanse.

She found that her expression, once focused on, would be humorous if more than the chiseled head of a child’s daemon were staring back.

Alas, the change was a sign to her that the wary hostility she was met with was now being traded for curiosity, if the tilt the familiar’s shimmering beak was doing was anything to go by. A look in its gleaming eyes that seemed to measure her and found it enough. 

It was awe that distracted her from her mission though, a single hand reaching up to touch, to feel for herself what her reflection was already experiencing. The skin of her arm wrinkled from age and the calloused palms from a life well-earned met the sheer surface of a being blanketed in white chrome. Fingers trickling along her forehead and down her cheek, a calming mix of cold and warm climbing up her hand. The faint feel of breezes during summer season personified and she could get lost in this feeling.

The shift underneath her hand brought Teersa back, blinking quick as a beak that dwarfed her forearm leaned into the extended limb. A small bump that was far gentler than she thought possible but here she was, hands now moved to stroke this magnificent being at its behest. 

Much like its young charge, the exterior of the bird, though hard and challenging, was unmarred by life and its hardships. Her own palms showing more signs of life than what they were caressing and the machine seemed to whir delightedly in response. Pleasant chirps of gears on belts emitted from a breast larger than her own torso. 

Another sign that this being was far more alive than it appeared to be.

As if to agree with her thoughts, the cool surface that danced along her fingers gave way to a warmth she was used to finding in kindled hearths, her reflection distorting until it was no more. She almost pulled away, alarm present at the sudden shift from metal to a plush plume of feathers that now rose from the previously chilled veneer. A mesmerizing cascade of preened plumage that washed down its body so quickly she thought she must’ve misseen. 

But she hadn’t, the beat of breath and warmth of life was undeniable and oh so sobering for the occupants of the room.

The chamber swelled then. Sound filtering through the haze of amazement as Teersa recollected herself. The hearty cries of a newborn were harder to miss now that they wailed unbidden by a broad shield. Experienced eyes honing in on grumpy greens and the soul of their owner uncurled. Wings folding onto a speckled back of white and brown, a quick bow given, and the High Matriarch traded plush plumes for smooth skin.

Holding the discontent body of a baby was easier than handling the mess that came after. A burst of activity, Brave’s with bows notched and grim expressions followed by the frantic preaching of a fearful High Matriarch.

“That thing is an abomination!” Lansra all but screeched as she flailed towards Teersa and the child with a soul made of two. Apparently her sister saw fit to approach now that she held the babe in her arms. “The Metal Devil himself has risen his spawn to scorn our land. We must rid ourselves of its curse or we will face the consequences!”

The avian did not look pleased. At what was anyone’s guess, but there was an unhappy tilt to its head. One Lansra saw fit to ignore if only to maintain some semblance of dignity now that she stood within striking distance.

Teersa had not seen her fellow High Matriarchs leave. Too enraptured by the experience of her lifetime, she had not heard the busy march of the veritable army Lansra and Jezza brought back, but she was not afeared like her sisters were. Rather, her hands and attention were firmly wrapped around the sniffling tears and tufts of red in her arms and the fierce but trusting eyes at her side. 

She had a duty that amounted to no small task, but All-Mother give her strength, she was not about to let this miracle she’d witnessed go unseen or unsung by her people. “You will do no such thing, sister.” Harsh in the way only mothers could be, but Lansra paused and with it came the veiled confusion of more than one Brave. Bows lowered and ears listening as she continued, “This child is a blessing from All-Mother. To kill her would be to dishonor our Holy Matron.”

“Our Matron,” Lansra spat with no small amount of disgust, “has had no part in the creation of that monstrosity,” her fingers pointed in accusation at the taloned fury perched at Teersa’s side and the now rambunctious babe it represented.

It was Jezza who saw fit step between them. Who saw reason amidst the chaos that the High Matriarchs usually held the Metal Devil responsible for. “This is no time for unrest, sisters,” she reasoned. “There is action that must be taken. If you would not have us dispose of the child and its soul, then what would you have us do, Teersa? We cannot have such an... unknown living amongst our people. Their safety must come first.”

Jezza had been delicate in her questioning but she was casting more than one wary glance at the familiar and all its bristled glory. It stood tall and all-seeing, head unnaturally still as it kept its gaze on the bundle in Teersa’s arms. Said women had no doubt that, if given enough reason, the claws on its feet would be put to violent use. Alas, that had not happened and Teersa was looking to keep it that way.

No matter the angle she took though, she still felt it a disservice to be anything but grateful for the child in her arms. She could understand, a mother’s job was to listen after all, but she could not agree with the death Lansra promised or the urgent, unsaid but heard plea that Jezza offered. She was outmatched, simple as it was, so a lesser of two was the only right decision to be made with the choices offered.

“To live as an outcast atop the mountains in All-Mother’s Embrace is my plea for this new breath that sits between us, sisters.” Earnest and unyielding and Jezza’s nod in solemn agreement was swift. 

“You will bring ruin to us all,” Lansra hissed but retreated nonetheless. The party she had amassed quickly following suit. 

The uncertainty was still heavy in the air even after the shaken women’s departure, but Jezza saw fit to end it as she asked, “To him, then?” The look was one of grief and Teersa knew that Jezza at least would never cast death as a suitable punishment for a crime never committed.

“To him,” she nodded, grateful that the breath-taking soul beside her did not disagree.

There could be no greater choice than He, Teersa knew. He was steady and firm and everything Teersa could hope to offer the child that now existed as an outcast. 

The choice was bitter but sweetened when she intercepted Lansra at the naming ceremony. The aged woman with a veritably feathered wall behind her back, both beings blocking her sister and her hate for what was behind them.

It was sweetened because, as He raised the babe to the rising sun, He shouted a name that could do nothing but fit the pair of daemon and child as they were.

Aloy, He had shouted.

To be made of two.

It was sweetened when the avian at Teersa’s back, wearing the mixed colors of edged plating and the flaring sunrise, had bellowed in agreement. A warbling staccato that chased the name down the mountain and across the valley. 

It was sweetened when all Lansra could do was trip over herself in seething surprise at the sight.

**Author's Note:**

> I do have other chapters planned in no particular order whatsoever, but my motivation/commitment to doing one thing over a long period of time doesn't typically work for me so I won't promise a steady update schedule. I'll post when/if I do and I hope you enjoy those chapters when I do.
> 
> If you have any ideas though about this story you can drop them below and I'll see what I can do. Also, if this gets enough love, and I get enough of a kick in the ass, I've had another full story fic in my head for HZD for a long time as well. It's not a Daemon AU, but it would be a fully fleshed out story with Aloy and another character we didn't get to see much of in the main game, not Avad or Erend or Nil or Varl, and it would center around companionship not necessarily a relationship. I swear, I'm just looking for an excuse to start it so let me know if that's something you'd like to see as well!
> 
> Anyways, thanks for reading and have the day you have! :D


End file.
